Florence Bagley
Florence Bagley | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | January 3, 1914 Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA |
| Died | December 3, 1990 (aged 76) Ozark, Alabama, USA |
| NSA member | France 1958 - 1960 1961 - 1963 Leeward, Windward & Virgin Islands 1976 - 1977 French Antilles 1977 - 1981 |
Florence Esther Johnson Bagley (January 3, 1914 - December 3, 1990) was an American Bahá’í who pioneered extensively to help develop and establish Bahá’í communities. She was named a Knight of Bahá’u’lláh for pioneering to Sicily.
Biography[edit]
Bagley was born Florence Esther Johnson in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in 1914. She was introduced to the Bahá’í Faith in 1930 attending a fireside facilitated by Elizabeth Greenleaf and her mother accepted the Faith. Bagley became a Bahá’í in April, 1935, shortly after marrying Stanley T. Bagley and her husband also declared at the same time. The Bagley's helped establish and served on the Local Spiritual Assembly of Flint Michigan from 1935 to 1953.[1]
Bagley and her mother supported the Louhelen Bahá’í Summer School by preparing meals and in 1951 she was appointed to the Louhelen Program Committee and frequently taught at the summer school. In 1953 her family attended the Intercontinental Conference in Chicago held to launch the Ten Year Crusade and her family volunteered to pioneer to Africa however they did not hear back from the pioneering Committee. They then decided to pioneer to Sicily departing America from New York on October 17 and arriving in Palermo on October 27.[1]
The family soon had to depart Sicily due to financial pressure with Shoghi Effendi approving of them departing for another pioneering post. Horace Holley suggested they settle in France where her husband could work at the American Air Force Base in Chateauroux and they settled in the city in October 1954. Bagley learnt French and began preparing study courses on the Faith, facilitating firesides, serving as a travel teacher to Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, and producing the French Bahá’í Bulletin.[1]
In 1958 the National Spiritual Assembly of France was established and Bagley was elected to the body.[2] She retired from the body in 1960 when she and her husband pioneerd to Charleroi, Belgium, for nine months where they established a Local Spiritual Assembly.[1] The Bagley's returned to Charteroux at the request of the Hands of the Cause as the community in France was in crisis due to several of the members of the National Spiritual Assembly breaking the Covenant by accepting Mason Remey's fradulent claim to be Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith and after returning Bagley assisted Hand of the Cause Abu’l-Qásim Faizí with deepening the Bahá’í community and was re-elected to the National Assembly.[2]
In August 1963 the Bagley's returned to the United States where they settled in the South and helped establish and consolidate the Faith in Alabama and Georgia serving on several Local Spiritual Assemblies and Bahá’í communities. Bagley embarked on a four month international teaching trip to the French Antilles in 1972 and made a second trip to the same location in 1974. She and her husband pioneered to Guadeloupe in 1976 and she was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Leeward and Virgin Islands and then the National Assembly of the French Antilles. In 1980 they pioneered to Fort-de-France in Martinique.[2]
In 1981 the Bagley's returned to America again settling in the South establishing themselves in Ozark, Alabama. In her later years Bagley composed a record of her families pioneering service at the request of the Universal House of Justice.[2] She passed away in 1990 and the Universal House of Justice conveyed the following message after her passing:
DEEPLY SADDENED LOSS STALWART STEADFAST KNIGHT BAHA'U'LLAH FLORENCE BAGLEY WHOSE SIX DECADES DEVOTED SERVICE HIS CAUSE HIGHLY DISTINGUISHED BY OPENING SICILY, WITH HER HUSBAND STANLEY AND THEIR THREE CHILDREN DURING HISTORIC TEN YEAR WORLD CRUSADE HER LEONINE DEFENCE COVENANT FRANCE AND HER PIONEERING ACTIVITIES VIRGIN AND LEEWARD ISLANDS AND FRENCH ANTILLES ON WHOSE NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLIES SHE SERVED ARE UNFORGETTABLE FERVENTLY PRAYING PROGRESS HER ILLUMINED SOUL ABHA KINGDOM KINDLY CONVEY OUR LOVING SYMPATHY MEMBERS HER DEAR FAMILY.[3]
Publications[edit]
- 1969 - Your Participation in Bahá'í Programs[4]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 20 (1986-1992), Pg(s) 1003. View as PDF.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 20 (1986-1992), Pg(s) 1004. View as PDF.
- ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 20 (1986-1992), Pg(s) 1005. View as PDF.
- ↑ Collins, W. P. (1990). Bibliography of English-Language Works on the Babi and Bahá'í Faiths 1844-1985. Oxford, UK: George Ronald. ISBN 0-85398-315-1., p 45
